Products made of web-shaped material, like paper or nonwoven, are traditionally used for a number of applications at home, in industry, office, public areas etc. Examples of such products are toilet paper, household towels, napkins, facial tissue, handkerchiefs, hand towels and wiping materials. Different applications place different demands on the product. In many cases, it is desired that the products have a pleasing visual appearance and/or a visual appearance that should communicate a message, e.g. the logotype of the company producing or selling the products.
It is well-known in the art to apply visually pleasing visible patterns on a web-shaped material in order to improve the visual appearance. The pattern may for example be printed or applied by using coloured adhesive.
For some of the above-mentioned products, the manufacturing comprises a step, wherein one or more of the web-shaped material is/are folded into stacks. Normally, there is also a preceding step, wherein the web-shaped material is divided into individual sheets by e.g. perforation lines or cutting lines. Examples of products that are normally sold in stacks are facial tissue, hand towels, wiping materials and napkins. Also toilet paper and household towels are sometimes sold in folded stacks. For this kind of products, there is normally no synchronization between an applied visible pattern and the distance between the folds or the sheet size. When the web-shaped material is folded into a stack, the sides of the stack constituted by the folds of the web-shaped material will therefore have an arbitrary pattern, which may impair the total visual appearance of the stack. Furthermore, since the applied visible pattern is often indicative of the type or function of the material from which the stack is made, this characteristic is not ascertainable when viewing the sides of the stack.
WO 01/09023 (The Procter & Gamble Company) discloses how a pattern, called indicia, can be applied to the end surfaces of a rolled paper product providing a functional benefit or an aesthetically-pleasing pattern. In an alternative embodiment a cut-and-stack configuration is described, e.g. facial tissue, with a pattern on at least one edge. It is also said that the planar surface of the sheets may be printed. In an embodiment shown in FIG. 2 of the document, the pattern on the end surface of the roll continues over the circumferential (or xy-) surface of the roll. The document further states that the indicia on the end surfaces could be aesthetically coordinated with the xy-surface print, e.g. the end surfaces could have small animals and the xy-surface large animals which match the small ones. According to the document WO 01/09023, the indicia are preferably applied to the end surfaces of the paper product by printing.
Since printing on the end surfaces implies an extra process step, the manufacturing will consequently be more complex and costly. In order to keep the “aesthetical coordination” between the xy-surface and the indicia at the end surfaces, the patterns of different application units, printing the xy-surface and end surfaces respectively, should be matched to each other from a pattern design point of view. If a pattern change is made, both the xy-pattern and the end surface pattern must be exchanged simultaneously.
There is therefore a need for a method, which in a more simple way can provide a visually pleasing product having a visually pleasing planar surface as well as visually pleasing sides of the stack. There is a further need for a product in the form of a stack, which stack is more readily identifiable.